As a kid my uncle would take my father and I out there to a few spots, California hole, around the islands etc, but I was to young to remember of notice water levels, which brings me to my question.

How do the water levels in Estes and other surrounding bays vary through the seasons?

I got a boat last winter and spent dec-Jun in Copano to cedar bayou, getting use to the boat and how it felt. Then around July I ventured into estes, found the hole, and a few other spots and GPSed them because I could get to them without bottoming out props, trolling motors, etc. All the spots where 3 feet or so, untill I went out last weekend. *feel free to laugh, I went out, found the cut into estes and went out towards the island and big cut, when I got to my GPSed spot I shutdown and bam, not enough water for trolling, AT HIGH TIDE, so I spent the next hour and a half pushing to get to a reasonable depth. Not how I wanna fish estes, so any advice would be appreciated. I have noticed varies spots that are "low" compared to when I started paying attention last year.

estes flats is territory that is best explored by shallow running boats

I've fished that area my whole life and I've never seen much of a tide change. not like we used to have up in Galveston and West bay where you had to time your incoming and outgoing trips to coincide with high tide

unless there was some kind of a neap tide due to the full moon I would say that you may not have been in the exact same spot as before

Good Lord.................................HbF, to try to answer your question, when did you run Estes, 4th-5th or the 28th-29th? This time of year the Texas coast gets the Spring "Bull tides" where the tides are usually higher than normal as "clean/good" saltwater from the gulf starts getting pumped into the bays.

However a few things that might have affected H2O depth. One, if a cold front pushed through you'll see the flats lose water fast even with a high tide, especially if the wind is strong from the N quadrants.

Second, are you certain you fished a high tide period for Estes? Asking cause the tide times are different from the gulf beach to the back bays as well as mid-point of the bays. Tides during the 1st or last 1/4 moon usually are not as strong as a full or new moon tide so you could have been fishing a low tide time frame on Estates with a lower water mass moving to start with when out there.

Third, if you fished last July once or only a few times you might have fished when the tides were higher than normal, which is not common in July. Often the tides are lower in July, but factors can make for a "higher tide" than normal in July. 3' depth seems a bit high for Estes. Just possible ways the water levels could have been different from last July. suggestion, next time if Estes is low get over to Hog island hole and fish up towards the Klondikes, especially towards end of this month, should be a lot of trout in 2'-3' of water then.

Estes, Seadrift back lakes, lower laguna are just not kind to non tunnel flats rigs at all. It's just too hard to navigate, where a properly setup flats boat can run anywhere they see dark bottom, no so much a bay boat. Not dogging you at all, but trying to run something that doesn't belong there is just a hard future.

Sometimes it gets the best of us. I can usually run in anything that's got a ripple on the water, just avoid the oil slick shoalwater, and good to go. Had an extra person on, full tank of gas, extra bag of ice, and that boys was all it took to take it from 2" to 3" and ground it up fifty yards up a sand bar. I promise when I get stuck, it's really stuck.

You *MIGHT* want to consider this, I carry a little comealong and can use my mud anchor and it holds enough to be able to winch myself back to ankle deep water and go, without it we'd still be sitting there.

I judge the water level in Estes Fats by how high it is relative to the walkways in Palm Harbor. When it's over the docks you can go straight over the spoil islands from the intercoastal. When it's way below you better have a tunnel hull, or find a cut.